A friend sent me this link to some forecasts about IT trends in the coming year. The short of it is that Big IT companies are still short sited: http://www.devx.com/wireless/Article/46231?trk=DXRSS_WEBDEV
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My friends impression is that “If the larger companies bail on it (developing phone apps), what have we got to lose? It might be a good idea to stick with.”
After I read the article. I had to agree. Oracle seems to be pillaging Java and people are moving to alternatives. For Myself, I think the future of desktop apps is JavaScript or Action-script run-time engines like Air, Mozilla or Webkit. But I really think the future of apps in general, is Ajax web clients talking to web services.
Most big corporations and institutions can’t see beyond 30 or 90 days.  Anything that doesn’t payoff in a short window, they dump. This makes for a lot of opportunities for people with any kind off vision.
For the article comments about Java, remember most programming is done not for the internet but for big businesses to keep track of themselves. I would say 2/3 of our development where I work, is for internal use. That is where Java has been used, for data driven internal applications and reports that are wrapped in a lot of security. It’s all turning into a big bloated beast. This is what slimmer web service based development will replace.
I think phone apps are the tip of a new floating iceberg of embedded app development for the masses. Maybe is a few years we may look at the whole idea for desktop apps as a quaint reminder of good old days past.
Anyway that is my two cents for now.